Many vehicles such as passenger aircraft, buses, trains, and the like include seats for bearing passengers en route to a destination. A number of factors affect suitability of such passenger seats. Generally, such passenger seats are subject to safety requirements established by governments or other standard-setting organizations. At the same time, passenger comfort of using or interacting with a passenger seat is often an important consideration. Additionally, a seat's weight (e.g., which may directly affect an amount of fuel and corresponding cost to bear the seat between destinations) and general costs associated with a seat (e.g., cost of production, cost of installation, or cost of maintenance) are generally desirably reduced to reduce overall operating costs. Moreover, airlines or other passenger craft operators will often specify that a seat be of a particular size (e.g., have a specific maximum width or other dimension or fit within a specific footprint or area). Specified seat sizes may allow seats to be fit into existing spaces in aircraft or other vehicles. This may in turn allow old seats to be replaced and/or allow enough seats to be installed to yield sufficient revenue through corresponding fares for offsetting operating cost of the aircraft.
In many situations, however, various of these considerations may conflict with one another. For example, modifying a seat to improve passenger comfort in some cases may result in changes that negatively affect weight, safety, size, cost, or other factors. Accordingly, seats are desirable that can provide improvements in any one of these considerations while remaining within given parameters for the other considerations.